I N T H E M I D S T O F L I F Ta les qf S oldi er s a n d Civilia n s By AMBROSE BIERCE B O N I 8c L I V E R I G HT N E W Y O R K 1 9 1 8 PREFACE TO THE FI RST EDITION DENIED existence by the chief publishing o f houses the country, this book owes itself f E. o . S to M r L G teele , merchant, this ’ city . In attesting M r . Steele s faith in his hi s au judgment and friend , it will serve its ’ thor s main and best ambition . 8 A . e 1 1 SAN FRANCISCO, S pt. 4 , 89 . CONTENTS SOLDIERS PAGE ! A HORSEM AN I N THE S K Y ‘ AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE CHICK AM AUGA v A S ON OF THE GODS “ ONE OF THE MI S SI NG Q KI LLED AT RESACA ’ THE AFFAIR AT CouLTER s NOTCH Q THE COU P DE GR CE J PARK R ADDERS ON P ILOSOP R E , H HE AN AFFAIR OF OUTPOS I’ ‘ S THE S TORE OF A CONSCIENCE ONE KI ND OF OFFICER O N OFFIC R ON MAN E E , E GEORGE THURSTON THE MOCKI NG-BI RD CIV ILIANS THE MAN OUT OF THE NOSE AN ADV ENTURE AT BROWNV ILLE THE F A M OUS GILSON BEQUEST CONTEN TS PAGE TE E APPLICANT A WATCHER BY THE MAN AND THE S NAKE THE SUITABLE S URROUNDING S THE BOARDED WI NDOW A LADY FROM RED HORSE THE EYES OF THE PANTHER A HO RSEMAN IN THE SKY N E sunny afternoon in the autumn of the year 1 86 1 a soldier lay in a clump of laurel by the side o f a road in western Virginia . He lay at full length upon his stomach , his feet resting upon the toes , his head upon the left forearm . H is extended right hand loosely grasped his rifle . B ut fo r the somewhat methodical disposition o f hi s limbs and a slight rhythmic movement o f the cartridge - box at the back of his belt he might have been thought to be dead . He was f asleep at his post o duty . But if detected he would be dead shortly afterward , death being f the just and legal penalty o his crime . The clump of laurel in which the criminal lay was in the angle o f a road which after ascending southward a steep acclivity to that point tu rned sharply to the west, running along the summit for perhaps o n e hundred yards . There it turned southward again and went zigzagging downward through the for o f est. At the salient that second angle was a 1 6 THE COLLECTED WORKS fiat o u t , large rock , jutting northward over looking the deep valley from which the road f ascended . The rock capped a high cli f ; a Stone dropped from its outer edge would have fallen sheer downwa rd one tho u sand feet to the tops o f the pines . The angle where the soldier lay was on another spur o f the same cliff . Had he been awake he would have com a n ded V o f m a iew , not only of the short arm b u t the road and the jutting rock , of the entire profile of the cliff below it . It might well have made him giddy to look . The country was wooded everywhere ex cept at the bottom of the valley to the north a ward , where there was small natu ral meadow, th rough which flowed a stream ’ scarcely visible from the valley s rim . This open ground looked hardly larger than an - ordinary door yard , but was really several acres in extent . Its green was more vivid than that o f the inclosing forest . Away beyond it rose a line of giant cliffs similar to those upon which we are supposed to stand in ou r survey o f the savage scene , and th rough which the road had somehow made its climb to the . i n summit The configu ration of the valley, deed , was such that from this point of observa tion it seemed entirely shut in , and one could OF AMBRO SE BIERCE 1 7 but have wondered how the road which found o u t a way of it had found a way into it, and whence came and whither went the waters o f the stream that p arted the meadow more than a thousan d feet below . No country is so wild and difficult but men will make it a theatre o f war ; concealed in the o f - forest at the bottom that military rat trap , in which half a hundred men in possession o f the exits might have starved an army to sub Of i n mission , lay five regiments Federal fan try . They had marched all the p revious day and night and were resting . At nightfall they would take to the road again , climb to the place where their unfaithful sentinel now the o f slept , and descending other slope the ridge fall upon a camp of the enemy at about midnight . Thei r hope was to surp rise it , for o f the road led to the rear of it . In case fail ure, their position would be perilous in the extreme ; and fail they surely would Should accident o r vigilance app rise the enemy of the movement . II The sleep ing sentinel in the clump of lau rel wa s a young Virginian named Carter D ruse . so n H e was the of wealthy p arents , an only c ase child , and had known such and cultiva 1 8 THE COLLECTED WORKS tion and high living as wealth and taste were able to command in the mountain country of western Virginia . H is home was but a few miles from where he now lay . One morning he had risen from the b reakfast—table and : said , quietly but gravely Father , a Union regiment has arrived at G rafton . I am going ” to join it . The father lifted his leonine head , looked at the so n a moment in silence , and replied “ v Well , go , sir, and whate er may occur do u . what yo u conceive to be your d ty Vi rginia , s to which you are a traitor, mu t get on with S o u t yo u . hould we both live to the end of o f . the war , we will speak further the matter h as Your mother, as the physician informed you , is in a most critical condition ; at the best she cannot be with us longer than a few weeks , but that time is p recious . It would be better ” not to distu rb her . S to o Carter Druse , bowing reverently his u father, who ret rned the salute with a stately courtesy that masked a b reaking heart, left the home o f his childhood to go soldiering . By conscience and courage, by deeds of devotion and daring , he soon commended himself to his fellows and his officers ; and it w as to these qualities and to some knowledge o f the coun O F AMBROSE BIERCE 1 9 try that he owed his selection fo r his p resent t the N perilous du y at extreme outpost . ever theless , fatigue had been Stronger th an resolu r tion and he had fallen asleep . What good o b ad angel came in a dream to rouse him from his o f who sa ? state crime, shall y Without a m ovement , without a sound , in the p rofound n silence and the lang uor of the late after oon , some invisible messenger of fate touched with “ —unsealing finger the eyes o f his consciousness whispered into the ear o f his spirit the mys terious awakening word which no human lips no eve r have spoken , human memory ever has recalled . He quietly raised his forehead from his arm and looked between the masking stems o f his the laurels , instinctively closing right o f hand about the stock his rifle . H is first feeling was a keen artistic delight . O C f — n a colossal p edestal , the li f, motionless at the extreme edge o f the capping rock and t sk —was sharply ou lined against the y, an equestrian statue o f imp ressive dignity . The o f sat o f figure the man the figure the horse , of straight and soldierly, but with the repose a Grecian god carved in the marble which lim o f t c os i ts the suggestion activi y . The gray tume harmonized with its aerial background ; the metal o f accoutrement and cap arison was 20 THE COLLECTED WORKS softe ned and subdued by the shadow ; the ’ animal s skin had no points o f high light . A carbine strikingly foreshortened lay across the o f pommel the saddle , kept in place by the “ ” right hand grasping it at the grip ; the left . hand , holding the bridle rein , was invisible In silhouette against the Sky the p rofile Of the horse was cut with the sharpness of a cameo ; it looked across the heights of air to the con fronting cli ffs beyond . The face of the rider, turned slightly away, showed only an outline of temple and beard ; he was looking down ward to the bottom of the valley .